What is Nashville's Off-Season and Future Outlook Following Familiar Goalie Coach Hire?

The Nashville Predators quietly went back to the future this week with the hiring of longtime goalie coaching guru Mitch Korn as the Preds’ new director of goaltending. 

Prior to spending the past six years as director of goaltending for the New York Islanders, Korn worked as a goalie coach for the Preds for 16 years before moving on to the Washington Capitals for a handful of years.

Korn has followed Barry Trotz everywhere the current Predators GM has worked, and the partnership led to a Stanley Cup championship with the Caps in 2018. And now, Korn returns to a Nashville market that’s aching for a deep playoff run in the immediate years to come. 

But one of the reasons why the Preds are one of the most fascinating teams to watch this summer is the question of what they’re going to do with their goaltending.

To wit – is it the end of the Juuse Saros era in Nashville? 

At 29 years old, Saros is still a dominant netminder, and his contract status – he’s in the final year of a pact that pays him an average annual value of $5 million – makes him even more attractive to teams in need of a goalie upgrade. 

It’s not necessarily the teams linked to him in trade rumors – Toronto and New Jersey, primarily – that could acquire his services. Any team that has experienced goalie letdowns in the past couple of years could re-jig their goaltending by outbidding other teams for Saros. 

He could be seen as a pure rental player by Cup front-runners wanting to win and win now. He could be the new cornerstone of a team fully intending to give him a healthy raise on a contract extension for the next six or seven years. The possibilities are many with Saros.

But that’s not the only reason the Preds are a team you should watch this summer. They’ve got about $26 million in cap space to use and 15 players already under contract for next season. That means Trotz could be a major player in both free agency and the trade market. 

Nashville showed this season their roster is a fringe playoff team, but to really take that next competitive step, they’re going to need a roster boost from Trotz. And as Trotz showed last season with the shocking buyout of forward Matt Duchene and the trading of forward Ryan Johansen, he’s not afraid to make notable moves to give his team a leg up.

That said, Trotz is also smart enough to know he can’t sacrifice all of the future to chase a playoff spot in the Central Division and Western Conference. Nashville has six picks in the first three rounds of the 2024 NHL entry draft and six picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft. If the Predators’ drafting and development team does their jobs well, the Preds should be a team with bright days ahead.

Still, the Preds lack that generational talent up front that drives most Cup front-runners. Defenseman Roman Josi is a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, but there is no real superstar forward Predators fans can hang their collective hat on. Those types of talents only usually get acquired at the top of drafts, so the challenge for Trotz will be to convert the assets he does have into better draft positions (and a little bit of luck in the draft lottery).

So, that’s where the Preds are at this point. Their GM is going with the brain trust that won him a Cup not all that long ago, and he’s also got a ton of cap space to use to his team’s advantage. Nashville intends to be a better team next year, and that should worry their rivals. Making the playoffs will be the minimum expected of them next season, and people will want to see two or three playoff rounds won next spring to categorize them as a success. It’s all rather intriguing, and Preds fans are likely in for a dramatic summer.